president taft visits mexico 4 000 troops

A Look At The Assassination Attempt Against William Taft

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William Howard Taft wasn't exactly the most skilled politician. Most historians rank him in the middle in terms of effectiveness, but he is the only person to have been President of the United States and Chief Justice of the United States — the 27th and the 10th, respectively. Taft was just a single-term president and was so unpopular, he came in third with just 23 percent of the vote in his reelection campaign in 1912.

But that didn't mean people didn't want him dead. In October 1911, a 52-year-old Minnesota man by the name of Julius Bergerson began bragging that he had an assassination plot in place for Taft's upcoming visit, but was arrested and declared insane on the morning of the president's arrival before he took any action, The New York Times reported at the time. When Taft visited Norwich, Connecticut, in July 1909 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the city, one woman scared off a man with a pistol who was rapidly approaching the president, but the Secret Service was never able to catch up with him. And, in October 1909, 27-year-old Arthur Wright traveled all the way from Lowell, Massachusetts, to Portland, Oregon, to take a shot at Taft during a parade to honor the president before a uniformed police officer tackled Wright as he made his way through the crowd, the Oregon Daily Journal reported at the time.

An assassination attempt at the U.S.-Mexico border

Several other attempts of various seriousness to assassinate William Howard Taft were foiled during Taft's only term, but one had graver consequences than the rest. In October 1909, a historic meeting was set between Taft and Mexican president Porfirio Diaz. It would be the first meeting between the heads of state of the two countries, and the first time an American president would step over the U.S.-Mexico border . They agreed on meeting at the Chamizal strip between El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez. It was considered disputed — but neutral — territory, and they agreed that no flags of either country would fly during the meeting. However, as news of the meeting began to circulate, a massive influx of assassination threats against both presidents began to raise concerns. 

On the day of the summit — even with Texas Rangers, U.S. and Mexican troops, Secret Service agents, FBI agents, and U.S. Marshals present — one man carrying a pistol sat along the route both presidents would be taking just moments later. A Texas Ranger spotted, disarmed, and restrained the man as Taft and Diaz passed just feet away. According to Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler, in their book,  The Secret War in El Paso , Taft made light of the assassination attempt, "If anyone wanted to get me he couldn't very well missed such an easy target."

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The First Time A U.S. President Visited Mexico

Interesting fact: Every acting U.S. president since Truman has visited Mexico, except Donald Trump.

Since Gerald Ford, the visit to Mexico has been a foreign priority, and the presidents made it within their first months in office.

Obama visited Mexico five times, George Bush Jr. six times, Bill Clinton twice, Bush the father once, and Reagan six.

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Starting with Truman, who was in Mexico on four occasions, each one has recognized in Mexico an ally, an opportunity and one of the main objectives of U.S. foreign policy. They have demonstrated this with official and informal visits, even if traditionally US presidents are not big travelers, and they pass their time in office without stopping by most of the countries of the world.

All except Donald Trump, who not only never visited Mexico as president —he also tried to literally put a wall between both nations.

The First Traveler

Many years before Harry S. Truman, another head of state spent a few hours in Mexico, met with his Mexican colleague, and became the first US president to visit the country. Not counting Theodore Roosevelt’s visit to the Panama Canal in 1906, William Taft’s would also be the first acting president to leave the U.S.

“In the States, the FBI had notified the chief of the Secret Service, John Elbert Wilkie, that they were aware of an attempt to kill Taft in Mexico.”

A couple of photographs, and even a film , saved the first meeting for posterity, showing Taft and the so-called Strong Man of the Americas, Mexican Porfirio Díaz.

It happened in two stages on the 16th of October of 1909. The first handshake took place in Texas, at the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, and was strictly private. Later, Taft agreed to cross the border to meet Porfirio Díaz at the Ciudad Juárez customs office. “You are, to my knowledge,” said the old general to his neighbor, “the first US premier to visit this land.”

The Two Presidents

The first Mexico-United States summit occurred at a delicate moment. In Díaz’s country, a Revolution was about to break out. The United States wanted a larger share of foreign direct investment in Mexico, which had turned its eyes to Europe.

But the atmosphere in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso did not reflect any apprehension. The two cities were brimming with intertwined flags, marching bands, and celebrations. Taft was greeted with twenty-one cannon blasts. From there he went to a banquet, “one of the most notable that has taken place in the American continent” according to a newspaper of the time.

The presidents’ attire contrasted. Díaz appeared with his coat full of military medals. Taft was soberly dressed, without any condecorations. One could be the other´s father, but both looked the same age.

During the meal, the presidents sat side by side, probably little aware of the significance of that first meeting. Díaz did not speak English. Taft knew a few Spanish words that he had learned in the Philippines. At the end of the meeting, the president of the United States extended his hand to Díaz and said: “ Hasta que nos volvamos a encontrar otra vez. “

Taft returned to Texas amid a cascade of fireworks and escorted by Mexican soldiers. By this point, the secret services of both countries must have breathed easy: days before, they had been warned that someone would try to assasinate both Taft and Díaz.

The Shooter

During the presidential meeting, a combination of Texas Rangers, U.S. and Mexican troops, Secret Service agents, FBI agents, and U.S. Marshals were on maximum alert.

In the States, the FBI had notified the chief of the Secret Service, John Elbert Wilkie, that they were aware of an attempt to kill Taft in Mexico. The plot was allegedly dissolved when the Chicago police arrested some anarchists a few days before the meeting, but the heavy security arrangements were kept for the visit.

On the day Díaz visited El Paso, a Texas Ranger, Private CR Moore, saw a man concealing a “pencil pistol”, standing along the route of both presidents. The man was arrested just in time when the two heads of state were passing by. According to other versions, the police arrested the shooter in Ciudad Juarez a few steps away from the heads of state.

A Bitter Realization

It is not known what both presidents talked about in their private meeting besides a few minor issues related to the Rio Grande. They were mainly interested in sending a message of peaceful coexistence, optimism and opulence.

The following decades would be a bitter realization that none of those things was going to happen for a long time. Actually, Taft would be one of the most interventionist presidents in Mexican affairs.

There would be no more U.S. presidential visits until 1943, when FDR —then the busiest man in the world— visited Manuel Ávila Camacho in the midst of World War II.

Joe Biden has promised to work more closely to resolve the myriad of issues that plague both nations, separated like never before in the four years of Trump’s presidency.

This may or may not be good news: Mexicans know that after four years of estrangement, four years of interventionism could follow. Biden has to find that delicate balance.

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About the author

Gustavo Vazquez-Lozano

Gustavo Vazquez-Lozano is a writer from Mexico. He has a degree in Economics and a Master´s in Liberal Studies. He has written extensively about Mexican history. The GGG-grandson of a Union Captain, and the great-grandson of an American diplomat in Mexico, his aim is to write for the better understanding of both nations. He resides in central Mexico.

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William Howard Taft

Toast of president porfirio díaz of mexico and president taft's response at the custom house in juarez, mexico.

President Díaz. Mr. President, Gentlemen: The visit His Excellency, President Taft, to-day makes to the Mexican territory will mark an epoch in die history of Mexico. We have had in our midst very illustrious American visitors, such as General Ulysses S. Grant and the Honorable Messrs. Seward and Root; but never before have we seen in our land the Chief Magistrate of the great American Union. This striking trait of international courtesy which Mexico acknowledges and appreciates to its full value and significance will henceforward establish a happy precedent for the Latin American Republics to cultivate unbroken and cordial relations among themselves, with us and with every nation of the Continent.

Actuated by these sentiments, which are also those of my compatriots, I raise my glass to the everlasting enjoyment by the country of the immortal Washington of all the happiness and prosperity which justly belong to the intelligent industry and eminent civism that are the characteristics of the manly and cultured American people, and to the enduring glory of its heroic founders. I raise my glass to the personal happiness of its illustrious President who has come to honor us with his presence and friendship whose display will make for the cultivation of the common interests which bind the two neighbor nations whose respective elements of life and progress find in their union reciprocal completion and enhancement.

President Taft. Responding as befits the cordiality of this auspicious occasion, I rise to express in the name and on behalf of the people of the United States their profound admiration and high esteem for the great, illustrious and patriotic President of the Republic of Mexico. I also take this occasion to pronounce the hearty sentiments of friendship and accord with which my countrymen regard the Mexican people.

Your Excellency, I have left the United States and set foot in your great and prosperous country to emphasize the more these high sentiments and to evidence the feeling of brotherly neighborhood which exists between our two great nations.

The people of the United States respect and honor the Mexicans, for their patriotic devotion, their will, energy, and for their steady advance in industrial development and moral happiness.

The aims and ideals of our two nations are identical, their sympathy mutual and lasting, and the world has become assured of a vast neutral zone of peace, in which the controlling aspiration of either nation is individual human happiness.

I drink to my friend, the President of this great Republic, to his continued long life and happiness, and to the never-ending bond of mutual sympathy between Mexico and the United States.

William Howard Taft, Toast of President Porfirio Díaz of Mexico and President Taft's Response at the Custom House in Juarez, Mexico Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/365219

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William Taft: Foreign Affairs

President Taft was more committed to the expansion of U.S. foreign trade than was Roosevelt. He pursued a program, known as "dollar diplomacy," designed to encourage U.S. investments in South and Central American, the Caribbean, and the Far East. To implement this foreign policy agenda, Taft used government officials to promote the sale of American products overseas, particularly heavy industrial goods and military hardware. In Taft's conception of foreign policy, the U.S. military was a tool of economic diplomacy. He invited U.S. banks to rescue debt-ridden Honduras with loans and grants, and he sent 2,700 U.S. marines to stabilize Nicaragua's conservative, pro-U.S. regime when rebels threatened to overthrow its government.

Taft's effort at designing a new look for U.S. foreign policy was generally unsuccessful. United States trade with China actually declined under Taft. Additionally, his program aimed at seeking commercial advantages in Central America aggravated the existing ill will that had been generated by Roosevelt's military interventions in Panama and Santa Domingo. (See Roosevelt's biography, foreign affairs section, for further details.) The bad relations between the United States and other American nations to the south resulted in the convening of a Pan-American Conference. This conference was intent on finding ways to curtail U.S. commercial penetration, influence, and intervention. When Taft ordered two thousand troops to the Mexican border to stand ready to intervene in revolutionary-torn Mexico to protect U.S. investments, Congress offered stiff opposition. Taft then backed off (earning the nickname "Peaceful Bill"), leaving the situation in Mexico for his successor to handle.

Peri E. Arnold

Professor of Political Science University of Notre Dame

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TAFT AND DIAZ MEET; TALK OF FRIENDSHIP; Celebrations in American and Mexican Cities as the Presidents Exchange Visits. DISPUTED STRIP IS NEUTRAL Precautions Taken to Guard the Visitors -- Boy Kills a Boy in the Crowd That Greets Taft. TAFT AND DIAZ MEET; TALK OF FRIENDSHIP

EL PASO, Texas, Oct. 16. -- The long-expected meeting between President Taft and President Diaz of the Republic of Mexico occurred here to-day. Outwardly it was attended with a display of soldiery, a flare of trumpets, a boom of cannon, and a pomp of ceremony suggestive of supreme authority, but in the actual hand clasp of the two Executives and in the exchange of courteous words there was simple but cordial informality. View Full Article in Timesmachine »

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Today in History: Taft and the Mexican Revolution, Colombian Guerrillas, and a Nobel Peace Prize Winner

1) On March 7, 1911, President William Howard Taft ordered 20,000 troops to patrol the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the Mexican Revolution.

Did you know? In January, the Mexican government commemorated the spot in El Paso where President Taft and Mexican President Porfirio Díaz met in 1909. The visit was the first time in history in which presidents from both nations met and signaled a new direction in the relationship between Mexico and the United States . The trip also marked only the second international trip by a sitting U.S. President. The meeting was described as the "Most Eventful Diplomatic Event in the History of the Two Nations."

2) In 1981, anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Bitterman, whom they'd accused of being a CIA agent.

3) Nobel Peace laureate Oscar Arias Sánchez was declared Costa Rica's president-elect on March 7th, 2006. President Arias was a two term president of that country.

Did you know? President Arias won the Nobel Peace laureate for his efforts for the beginnings of a regional peace plan for the Central American countries during the height of the Contra war. Arias's plan set a date for cease-fires between government and rebel forces, ensure amnesty for political prisoners, and schedule free and democratic elections in those countries.

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• Today in History: Abraham Lincoln’s Friendship with Benito Juárez

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Visits By Foreign Leaders of Mexico

Prologue Magazine

The United States Armed Forces and the Mexican Punitive Expedition: Part 1

En Español  

Fall 1997, Vol. 29, No. 3 | Genealogy Notes

By Mitchell Yockelson

Eighty years ago, in February 1917, the last of the U.S. troops serving in the Mexican Punitive Expedition recrossed the border from Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico, into Columbus, New Mexico. Eleven months earlier the bandit Francisco "Pancho" Villa had raided Columbus. With approximately 485 men, known as Villistas, Villa had attacked the border town on March 9, 1916. According to War Department reports, ten American officers and soldiers were killed, two officers and five soldiers wounded, eight civilians killed, and two wounded. The Mexican irregulars' losses numbered approximately one hundred killed, with seven wounded and captured. 1 From March 16, 1916, to February 14, 1917, an expeditionary force of more than fourteen thousand regular army troops under the command of Brig. Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing operated in northern Mexico "in pursuit of Villa with the single objective of capturing him and putting a stop to his forays." 2 Another 140,000 regular army and National Guard troops patrolled the vast border between Mexico and the United States to discourage further raids. 3 The expedition generated a vast array of military records that are now held in the National Archives and Records Administration, resources that are underused and are of value to genealogists and historians. This article is divided into two installments and examines the conflict and the records. The first part describes the events preceding the Mexican Punitive Expedition. The second part will trace the campaign in Mexico and discuss some of the records created by the United States armed forces during its activities in Mexico and along the border in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. 4

Although the Mexican Punitive Expedition is considered a minor event in U.S. history, it is a story filled with adventure, intrigue, and confusion. The origins of the expedition are rooted in the 1910 Mexican Revolution, when a rebel faction led by Francisco I. Madero, Jr., attempted to overthrow Mexico's dictator of more than thirty years, President Porfirio Diaz. The United States was concerned that the conflict would harm American business interests in Mexico and its citizens living along the border. As a result, President William H. Taft sent about sixteen thousand troops to Texas for "war games" in April 1911. The troops, consisting of elements of several regiments, were designated as the Maneuver Division. Although officially sent to the border for training exercises, unofficially the division prepared for a possible incursion into Mexico. By June the revolution had succeeded, and Madero was elected president. The Maneuver Division was disbanded on August 7, 1911.

Madero's victory was short-lived. On February 19, 1913, Gen. Victorio Huerta arrested Madero and forced him to resign. On February 22, Madero was presumed assassinated on orders from Huerta. A civil war erupted a few days later between Huerta's forces and supporters of Madero, who were led by Governor Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa. With a contingent of several thousand men, Villa formed a military band known as the Division of the North and operated in the mountains of northern Mexico.

In the United States a new American President, Woodrow Wilson, took office. Like his predecessor, Wilson now faced the task of choosing a side in the ongoing Mexican Revolution. Wilson's administration refused to recognize Huerta because of the corrupt manner in which he had seized power, and it instituted an arms embargo on both sides of the civil war. 5

When Huerta's forces appeared to be winning the civil war in early 1914, Wilson lifted the arms embargo by offering to help Carranza. This action had volatile consequences. For several months, U.S. Navy warships had been stationed at the ports of Tampico (under the command of Rear Adm. Henry T Mayo) and Vera Cruz (under Rear Adm. Frank R. Fletcher's command) to protect American and other foreign interests associated with the rich oil fields in the area. On April 9, a group of sailors detached from the USS Dolphin went ashore at Tampico to retrieve supplies. Huerta's troops arrested and detained two of them. The sailors were released a short time later, and President Huerta offered an apology to the United States for the incident. Ultimately, Admiral Mayo demanded a twenty-one-gun salute to the U.S. flag in addition to the apology. Huerta agreed only if the Americans would return the honor. When learning of the incident, an angry President Wilson refused Huerta's request. Instead, he ordered the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet to Mexico's Gulf Coast to strengthen the forces under Mayo and Fletcher and occupy Tampico. 6 Another crisis festering down the coast in Vera Cruz, however, prevented U.S. troops from occupying the city, and the Tampico incident came to an end with no real conclusion.

The U.S. consul's office in Vera Cruz had been warned that a German ship delivering arms for Huerta was expected in the port on April 21,1914. President Wilson ordered U.S. forces in the area to seize the town's customhouse and capture the guns. On the afternoon of April 21, a contingent of 787 marines and sailors quickly went ashore and seized the customhouse. By noon of April 22, the U.S. troops had occupied the town. 7 Although they had hoped to avoid bloodshed, U.S. forces were nevertheless fired upon by Mexican soldiers, and a violent street battle ensued. The American losses were four killed and twenty wounded on April 21 and thirteen killed and forty-one wounded on April 22. We have no accurate casualty number for the Mexican troops, but it was reported that between 152 and 172 were killed and between 195 and 250 were wounded. 8

On April 30, 1914, the U.S. Army's Fifth Infantry Brigade, under the command of Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston, arrived at Vera Cruz. The brigade assumed occupation duty from the marines and also organized a military government to restore order to the city. President Huerta never officially recognized the U.S. occupiers, but he made no serious attempts to resist their power. On July 15, 1914, Huerta resigned from the office of president and moved to Spain. The Fifth Infantry Brigade left Vera Cruz on November 23, and the U.S. government agreed that Carranza and his de facto government could use the city as their capital. 9

The United States and six Latin American nations officially recognized the Carranza government on October 19, 1915, a direct insult to Pancho Villa and his followers, who had earlier parted ways with Carranza. Feeling betrayed, the Villistas set forth on a course of retaliation directed mainly at Americans. In one instance, Villa's irregulars assassinated seventeen U.S. citizens aboard a train traveling from Chihuahua City to the Cusi Mine at Santa Isabel, Chihuahua. Although this act infuriated the American public, it was the Villistas' next attack, the raid on Columbus, New Mexico, that caused the U.S. government to seek retribution. 10

Why Villa chose Columbus as a target for his most daring raid is unclear. The small town had only one hotel, a few stores, some adobe houses, and a population of 350 Americans and Mexicans. 11 Most likely, Villa was enticed to attack Columbus because it was the home of Camp Furlong and the Thirteenth U.S. Cavalry Regiment under the command of Col. Herbert J. Slocum. The Thirteenth had been garrisoned at Columbus since September 1912. 12 At the time of the attack, the regiment comprised 500 officers and men, but only about 350 men were at the camp. A local citizen warned Slocum that Villa was nearby. As a precaution, Slocum strengthened the patrols and outposts of the camp with detachments from the regiment. Since Villa had numerous sympathizers living in Columbus and the vicinity, he had no trouble obtaining information on Camp Furlong's troop strength or other bits of intelligence.

Although Villa's rationale for attacking Columbus has never been explained, the outcome is clearly documented. The secretary of war reported that "Villa's command crossed the border in small parties about 3 miles west of the border gate, concentrated for and made the attack during hours of extreme darkness after the moon had set and before daylight." 13 After a bloody confrontation in which eighteen Americans died, two troops of the Thirteenth Cavalry under the direction of Maj. Frank Tompkins pursued the bandits. The troops chased the Mexicans south of the border for twelve miles before their ammunition and supplies were exhausted. 14   The raid, however, could hardly be considered a victory for Villa and his men. Besides killing a small number of soldiers and civilians, his men came away with a few horses and a meager amount of loot from the stores and homes of the town.

Both public outcry and pressure from the army moved President Wilson to order the military to pursue Villa and punish him. General Funston, now commanding the Southern Department, telegraphed the War Department the day after the raid, "I urgently recommend that American troops be given authority to pursue into Mexican Territory hostile Mexican bandits who raid American territory. So long as the border is a shelter for them they will continue to harass our ranches and towns to our chagrin." 15 Wilson responded by directing Secretary of War Newton Baker to organize a punitive expedition.

The U.S. Army quickly made preparations to conduct the expedition. Troops and supplies poured into the newly established base command in Columbus, which was still recovering from the raid. Maj. Gen. Hugh Scott, army chief of staff, selected Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing to lead the expedition. Pershing's military record was admirable. He had served in the frontier Indian Wars, the Philippine Insurrection, and as an observer in the Russo-Japanese War. While on the western frontier, he had commanded a troop in the all-black Tenth U.S. Cavalry Regiment and earned the nickname "Black Jack." At the time of the raid, he was in command of the El Paso District. It was not Pershing's fighting record, however, that impressed Scott but the competence in diplomacy he had shown during his service in the Philippines and China, a skill necessary for the upcoming expedition.

A jealous General Funston coveted the Punitive Expedition command, and when passed by Scott, he exhibited an animosity toward Pershing that persisted throughout the expedition. 16 Pershing was still subordinate and reported directly to Funston, who intended to manage almost every detail of the expedition, but Funston did allow the commander of the Punitive Expedition full control over troop assignments. One officer Pershing chose to serve on his staff was a young lieutenant named George S. Patton, Jr., who would later achieve glory as an army commander during World War II.

The diplomatic bargaining between the U.S. Department of State and Carranza allowed Pershing to complete preparation for the expedition. His orders, as directed by General Funston, were to lead two columns that included infantry, cavalry, field artillery, engineers, the First Aero Squadron with eight airplanes, field hospitals, wagon and ambulance companies, and signal detachments. One colunm would leave from Columbus and the other from Hachita, via the Culberson Ranch. From garrisons along the border, troops entrained for Columbus and brought the expedition up to strength. 17

In the coming months they advanced four hundred miles into Mexican territory, adapting their maneuvers to a hostile terrain while experimenting with new technologies in such forms as motor transport and aircraft reconnaissance. Part 2 of this article will discuss the successes and failures of the Mexican Punitive Expedition and how records created by the military, such as unit histories and awards and decoration files, can be used for genealogical purposes.

Mexican Punitive Expedition: Part 2

Mitchell Yockelson is a reference archivist in the Modern Military Records Branch, National Archives and Records Administration. He specializes in U.S. Army records for the period from the Spanish-American War to World War II.

Suggested Readings

To learn more about the Mexican Punitive Expedition, consult the following works.

Allen, Inez V, and Robert S. Thomas. The Mexican Punitive Expedition under Brigadier General John J. Pershing, United States Army, 1916 – 1917 , chapters 1–5.  Washington, D.C.: The Chief of Military History, 1954.

Clendenen, Clarence C. Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars . New York: MacMillan, 1969.

Eisenhower, John S.D. Intervention: The United States and the Mexican Revolution, 1913 – 1917 . New York: WW Norton & Company, 1993.

Harris, Charles H., and Louis R. Sadler. "The Plan of San Diego and the Mexican-United States War Crisis of 1916: A Reexamination." Hispanic American Historical Review 58, No. 3 (August 1978): 381–408.

Mason, Herbert Mofloy, Jr. The Great Pursuit. New York: Random House, 1970.

Meyer, Michael C., and William L. Sherman, The Course of Mexican History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Quick, Robert. E. An Affair of Honor: Woodrow Wilson and the Occupation of Vera Cruz . Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1962.

Smythe, Donald. Guerilla Warrior: The Early Life of Jobn J. Pershing . New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973.

Tompkins, Frank. Chasing Villa . Harrisburg, VA: Military Service Publishing Company, 1934.

Ulibarri, George S., and John R Harrison, comps. Guide to Materials on Latin America in the National Archives . Washington, DC: National Archives, 1974.

1. War Department, Annual Report of the Secretary of War for the Fiscal Year, 1916, Vol. 1 (1916), pp. 7–8.  There is some dispute over the actual number of American soldiers and civilians killed at Columbus.  Various historians have put the number of casualties anywhere from fifteen to eighteen.  War Department reports state that a combined total of eighteen soldiers and civilians were killed.

2. Arthur S. Link, ed., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson (1981), 36:287.

3. War Department Annual Report, 1916, pp. 13, 23, 189 - 191.  The strength of the U.S. Army on the border and during the Punitive Expedition is based upon reports published by the War Department.  This information is also included in the Returns of Military Organizations, entry 66, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1780's–1917, Record Group 94, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC (hereinafter, records in the National Archives will be cited as RG ___, NARA).

4. Since this article is military in scope, diplomatic records are not discussed.

5. Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1914 (1922), pp. 446–447 (hereinafter cited as FRUS ).

6. Ibid., p. 175.

7. Navy Department, Annual Reports of the Secretary of the Navy for the Fiscal Year, 1914 (1914) pp. 468, 470–471.

8. Surgeon General's Report, April 1914, Subject File (WE-Mexico, Vera Cruz), box 776, Naval Records Collection of the Office of the Naval Records and Library, RG 45, NARA.

9. War Department Annual Report, 1914, pp. 135–136.  See also entry 1177, Records of U.S. Army Overseas Operations and Commands, 1898–1942, RG 395, NARA.

10. FRUS, 1916 (1925), pp. 480–484, 650.

11. John S.D. Eisenhower, Intervention: The United States and the Mexican Revolution , 1913–1917 (1993), pp. 217–219.

12. History of the 13th Cavalry Regiment , entry 310, box 485, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, RG 165, NARA.

13. War Department Annual Report, 1916, pp. 7 - 8.

14. Border Disturbances Involving Operations of U.S. Troops (Chronology of Events), p. 2, Miscellaneous File #207, entry 16, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917– , RG 407, NARA.

15. Annual Report of the Fiscal Year 1916, by Maj. Gen. Frederick Funston, United States Army, Commanding the Southern Department, pp. 3–5, entry 27, file #243231, box 141, RG 407, NARA.  The Southern Department was the geographic area for the military that encompassed Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

16. Donald Smythe, Guerilla Warrior: The Early Life of Jobn J. Pershing (1973), pp. 220–221.

17. Clarence C. Clendenen, Blood on the Border: The United States and the Mexican Irregulars (1969) pp. 213–227.

City swept up in Taft-Diaz meeting, first for a U.S. and a Mexican president

The first meeting of a U.S. president and a Mexican president took place when William Howard Taft met Porfirio Díaz on Oct. 16, 1909, in El Paso.

The meeting was celebrated in both El Paso and Juárez with parades, elaborate receptions, lavish gifts and large crowds.

Although the two nations had been in the midst of a land dispute over the Chamizal area because of a shifting Rio Grande, newspaper accounts said the nations' leaders did not discuss anything of diplomatic or political import during their meetings on the border.

Díaz, who had been in power for 30 years, might have been eager for the opportunity to meet with Taft in hopes that it would shore up his image on the border. But only 19 months later, he would lose the Battle of Juárez and be forced to resign.

The program for the day

The program for the day, as printed in the Times that morning, was:

About 8 o'clock this morning, the thunder of General Myer's artillery will announce the arrival of President William H. Taft and all of the steamy and electric whistles in the city will join in the chorus.

Breakfast at St. Regis — The president's private car will be sent direct to the Oregon street crossing, within a few steps of the St. Regis hotel, where the presidential party will detrain and be escorted by Governor Campbell, Mayor Sweeney, General Myer and the reception committee to the breakfast room of the St. Regis, where breakfast will be served.

Go to Chamber of Commerce — After breakfast the president and party and distinguished visitors with a military escort will pass east on Main street to Mesa; thence south on Mesa to St. Louis, and west on St. Louis to San Francisco, and out to the chamber of commerce. The school children of the city will be massed in San Jacinto Plaza and will sing 'America' while the president is circling the plaza.

Diaz greeted at Santa Fe Bridge

In the meantime Secretary of War Dickinson, Secretary Hitchcock, Governor Campbell, Mayor Sweeney and General Myer, with two squadrons of cavalry and two batteries of artillery and the Third cavalry band, will at 11 o'clock receive President Diaz and staff at the Santa Fe Bridge.

(Another article said: "Upon the arrival of President Diaz at the place indicated, the secretary of war and the governor of Texas will proceed to President Diaz's carriage and the secretary of war will shake hands with President Diaz and in the president's name will extend an appropriate welcome. Thereupon the governor of Texas will extend a welcome in the name of the state of Texas, and the mayor will welcome the president in the name of the city of El Paso. The secretary of war and the governor of Texas will escort President Diaz to the carriage awaiting his reception on the American side. As President Diaz steps into the carriage, the appropriate salute of twenty-one guns will be fired by the American batteries. The secretary of war will ride with President Diaz, sitting at his left; the personal aide to President Diaz will sit on the opposite side of the carriage.")

Mexican troops wait at boundary

The Mexican troops, which have escorted the president of Mexico as far as the boundary, will wait on the Mexican side the return of the presidential party.

The Diaz Escort — The escort will then proceed to conduct the president of Mexico to the president of the United States, in the following order:

Brigadier general and staff, one squadron of cavalry, President Diaz's carriage, Carriage and personal escort of President Diaz and then the governor of Texas and staff.

Diaz's Route of March -- President Diaz and escort will turn into El Paso street on Fifth; thence north on El Paso to San Antonio; east on San Antonio to Campbell; north on Campbell to Myrtle; west on Myrtle to Stanton; north on Stanton to Texas; west on Texas to Mesa; on St. Louis, through Pioneer plaza and out San Francisco street to the chamber of commerce.

The school children massed in San Jacinto plaza will sing the national hymn of Mexico while President Diaz is passing the plaza.

Presidents meet

The two presidents will meet in the auditorium of the chamber of commerce and will be formally presented to each other. They exchange the courtesies of host and guest and will retire to the privacy of the blue room for a conference.

Diaz Returns to Mexico — After the conference the military escort will take President Diaz and party back to the boundary line, and at 1 o'clock the same escort will accompany President Taft and party to the bridge where they will be received by a Mexican escort and taken to the Juarez custom house where President Taft will visit President Diaz and the two presidents will have another talk.

And at 6 o'clock Mr. Taft will again visit Juarez to attend President Diaz's banquet in his honor.

Grand military parade

But in the meantime the most brilliant feature of the day will take place. It will be the grand military parade. It will form on 7th and 5th streets and be ready to receive President Taft on his return from Juarez at 2 o'clock p.m.

Troops in Parade — There will be 3,000 regular army troops in this parade, including the Ninth infantry, the Third cavalry, three batteries of field artillery and a battalion of the 19th infantry. Then there will be several companies of the National Guard and the El Paso Military Institute cadets, in addition to the uniform branches of secret orders.

The famous Third Cavalry band will lead the parade and there will also be the 9th regiment band, the 19th infantry band, and the artillery band.

Immediately after the parade President Taft will speak at Cleveland Square.

The presidential party will leave El Paso at 8 p.m.

Trish Long may be reached at [email protected] or 915-546-6179.

Biden administration sending 1,500 more soldiers to Mexico border

Troops will assist with administrative duties as Biden administration prepares for end of Title 42 border restriction.

The administration of US President Joe Biden is sending 1,500 additional soldiers to the United States border with Mexico as the country prepares for the lifting of contentious, pandemic-era restrictions later this month.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Pentagon said it had approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to send the added military personnel to the border for 90 days.

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The troops could arrive by May 10, a Pentagon spokesman told reporters.

The soldiers will perform “non-law enforcement duties” such as data entry and warehouse support, DHS said in an earlier statement , attributing the new deployment to an “anticipated increase in migration” at the southwest US border.

“This support will free up DHS law enforcement personnel to perform their critical law enforcement missions,” the department said.

The move comes amid concerns that the end of Title 42, a policy first imposed by ex-President Donald Trump in March 2020, will lead to a dramatic increase in the number of asylum seekers arriving at the US-Mexico border in search of protection.

Set to expire on May 11, Title 42 has allowed US authorities to rapidly turn away most migrants and refugees who arrive, without having to assess their asylum claims. It has drawn widespread condemnation from rights groups.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also confirmed that the additional Department of Defense personnel would perform “administrative tasks” at the frontier.

“They will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants or migrants,” Jean-Pierre said.

The 1,500 new forces would add to an ongoing deployment of about 2,500 National Guard troops.

Asked about the expanded deployment during a news conference, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters that the US is a sovereign nation and that Mexico respected its decisions.

But rights advocates slammed the plan, saying it sends the wrong message to asylum seekers, many of whom are fleeing widespread violence, political instability, poverty and other systemic problems in their home countries.

“This will absolutely send [the] message of militarizing the border to deter migrants,” Gregory Chen, director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), said on Twitter.

“People seeking asylum should be met with humanitarian professionals, welcoming volunteers, and medical and mental health professionals. Not soldiers,” Bilal Askaryar, interim campaign manager of the #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign, also tweeted.

People seeking asylum should be met with humanitarian professionals, welcoming volunteers, and medical and mental health professionals. Not soldiers. https://t.co/RxclCryuK0 — Bilal Soldierfriend (@Billyistan) May 2, 2023

Restrictions on asylum

The Biden administration has been trying to stem the flow of asylum seekers to its southern border for months, as the US president – who is seeking re-election in 2024 – faces criticism and political pressure from Republicans over the increased arrivals.

Vice President Kamala Harris told would-be migrants in 2021: “Do not come.”

In late April, Washington announced that it would open migration centres in several Latin American countries where people could apply for entry into the US away from the border.

However, the administration also stated that it would expedite deportations of people, including families, seeking to enter the US to petition for asylum. Under the new measures, those caught crossing the border irregularly would also be banned from re-entry for five years.

While Biden was critical of the anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric of the Trump administration, the Democratic president has been criticised by immigrant rights groups for keeping many of those policies in place and further restricting asylum during his time in office.

On Tuesday, Jean-Pierre stressed that Biden is striving to put a “modernised” immigration system in place. “He wants to do this in a humane way and do it differently certainly than it was done in the last administration,” she said.

But r estrictive US immigration policies , when paired with narrow pathways to legal entry into the country, have been blamed for pushing migrants into dangerous situations that leave them vulnerable to abuse.

After a fire at a migrant detention centre in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez killed at least 39 people, immigrant rights advocates blamed the tragedy on US immigration policies.

“Unfortunately, as the United States takes more extreme steps to close the border to asylum seekers, these types of tragedies will likely become more common,” Victoria Neilson, supervising lawyer at the National Immigration Project, a legal advocacy group, told Al Jazeera at the time.

Most of those killed were from Guatemala, while other victims hailed from Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.